Last night when we were going to bed around midnight, Jeff called his grand-dad in Colorado. Colonel A. served in World War II England, Germany, France, and Austria. We like to include him in our travels and share with him our itinerary. His memory and recall of details is amazing. He shared with Jeff a few more highlights of places for us to see on our journey that he had visited so many years ago.

Fulda Cathedral

The highlight of the day was going up to Point Alpha, in Fulda, to where Jeff used to patrol the Eastern German border as part of the U.S. Army’s 11th Cavalry back in 1985 during the Cold War.

He had not been back there since and it was remarkable to walk on the other side together as a family, listening to his stories.

On top of the observation tower.

We’ve enjoyed driving through the country, seeing the wide open spaces, rolling hills, forests, yellow fields, castles, churches, statues of Jesus everywhere in random places, and quaint towns.

Driving thru the exit of a castle in Meiningen.

We are ending our first full day in Bamberg. The river flows through the town and the buildings are all ornate in a Baroque style.

There is a charm to the city with people filling the streets. We stopped to buy Charlie a slice of pizza and started to chat with a local guy while we waited for the pizza to cook. The first strange thing was the baker was smoking while he assembled the pizzas. He laid his cigarette on the edge of the counter while he proceeded to rub sauce over the pizza dough with his bare (just smoked) hand. I tried to ignore it and started to make conversation with the local guy instead of being disgusted. He was a little drunk and friendly, and kept looking at us like we were crazy. He told me that I was weird for being in his town and with the kids. I asked why that was weird and he said that it was too late for kids to be out (8:15pm) and that we were on the party mile street. He kept hitting my arm, like he was surprised to see an American family in his town. I asked him where we should go for dinner and he walked us over to a local restaurant were they sat us in a private room. It was quiet and cozy and we all enjoyed a traditional German dinner. Luckily Marcos went on his way from there, but he sure made me laugh.

Life is good.

Goodnight, from Bamberg.